The supply chain issues that we have been hearing so much about have also affected publishers. The North American printing industry is in a real mess this fall, partly because of the shortage of bulk containers to get jobs that were done in China back here, which has resulted in the big houses bringing a lot […]

In Canada one in four people will suffer a stroke in their lifetime. My husband, Ron, had his stroke nine and a half years ago. Initially, he was completely paralyzed on his right side and came home from hospital in a wheelchair. For many years I resisted calling myself a caregiver. I consciously rejected the […]

Due out in the fall of 2021, The Caregiver’s Companion is a book for people who care for others. It is intended to be a companion, in the sense of a compassionate ally, for those who find themselves, perhaps abruptly, needing to care for others.  In November 2012 my husband Ron suffered a massive attack […]

Today has been a busy day. The Telus man was here at 8:30 am and by 11:00am Ron and I had a new modem, superfast internet and Optik TV complete with the ability to record television shows. (I know, most of you can do this already.) However, we were initially confused by the on/off button on our new remote […]

The above invitation appeared on the bulletin board of the Anglican Church in Nanoose Bayabout a week ago. Tonight, being the evening before the annual commemoration of the Crucifixion of Christ, aka Good Friday, we are all invited to a Pot Luck supper at the church.   I presume this Dinner With Jesus is meant […]

Surprise. I’m back. Time really does fly out here in the Zone. It also goes backward, too. How else could we collapse the universe so that it can keep on a-banging? Whirling? Pulsating? In and Out. In and Out. Just like our breath. In another dimension, I’ve already blogged 8,888 times. But how to tell […]

Here we are, only 2 weeks later, and entry 2 is finally under way. Why the lengthy hiatus? You might well ask. Why would my site be the target of hackers from Italy and Spain? Why would Site Lock, the powerful new weapon which I purchased to protect me from such vagabonds, lock me out, […]

Welcome to the Unknown Zone, the name I’ve chosen for my blog. It’s inspired by the space on my taskbar that occasionally shows up when I’m surfing the net on my old PC, a Dell Home Edition that I purchased in 2004. The Unknown Zone–a space I don’t know how to enter and don’t know […]

Patricia Jean Smith lives with her husband of forty-three years–writer, publisher and editor, Ron Smith–in Nanoose Bay on Vancouver Island. Although she was born on the bald prairie in Edmonton, Alberta and can vividly remember the icy wind and snowdrifts of a winter blizzard, since the age of ten she has lived in British Columbia. […]